Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, laughs while traveling to India in 2020. (Jeff Bezos via Twitter) Between an upswing in cartel talks and questions about employee turnover, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has a lot to fear here on earth. His plans to go suborbitally next month in a rocket ship built by … Read more
An artist’s conception shows a space probe firing its nuclear thermal propulsion system. (DARPA illustration) The idea of launching atomic bombs may sound like a national security nightmare, but the right kind of atomic bombs is likely a must for long-term space exploration. At least one panel of experts at the interface between the space … Read more
How serious could the suborbital space race between Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos get? (GeekWire photos) Would Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson try to steal a march from Blue Origin (and Amazon) founder Jeff Bezos when it comes to which billionaire will fly his own suborbital spaceship first? There was some excitement over the question … Read more
RBC Signals uses satellite ground stations around the world. (Graphic of the RBC signals) The warnings about the possible dangers of foreign alliances go back to George Washington’s farewell speech – but in the space age the problems related to international relations are much more nuanced. At least, that’s the view of Christopher Richins, the … Read more
An artist’s conception shows Telesat’s Phase 1 LEO satellite in orbit. (Telesat illustration) How will Pentagon planners deal with the streams of data expected to rain down from a constellation of satellites monitoring hotspots in orbit? Microsoft and Ball Aerospace have shown that the cloud can handle it – and not just handle it, but … Read more
Stoke Space Technologies’ second stage motor injector will be subjected to a test fire at the company’s component test facility. (Stoke photo) Two Washington state companies have received up to $ 750,000 each in NASA grants to take space-related technologies they are already working on to the next level of development. The awards for Stoke … Read more
New Shepard’s booster descends to Blue Origin’s landing pad. (Blue origin via YouTube) The Blue Origin space project by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos flew a mannequin into space today during the 15th test flight for its reusable suborbital spaceship New Shepard – but for the first time living, breathing people practiced every step before takeoff … Read more
Warner Bros. went to great lengths to get all of its 2021 movies out on HBO Max, and the service’s next big movie is a fair nod to the digital world. The studio released the first trailer for Space Jam: A New Legacy, and it’s more of an ode to sci-fi than you might think. … Read more
Amazon will soon be a big part of the space economy in the form of its Kuiper satellite internet constellation, but here on Earth its ambitions are more mundane: to get an accelerator going. They teamed up with space-focused VC outfit Seraphim Capital to create a four-week program with (among other things) an AWS credit … Read more
The man who probably ushered in the current SPAC rush with the merger of Virgin Galactic with his holding company Social Capital Hedosophia has sold the rest of his personal stakes in the space tourism company. Chamath Palihapitiya, who serves as Virgin Galactic’s chief executive officer, still owns 6.2% of the company’s shares in partnership … Read more